Containers or racks for sheet material

ABSTRACT

A compact storage container for flexible sheets such as drawings, comprising a long length of thin sheet material coiled into a spiral and located on a base with an open upper entry slot. The outer end of the slot is closed and at the centre there may be a vertical hollow column which may serve as a subcompartment.

United States Patent 1191 Frey [ 1 CONTAINERS OR RACKS FOR SHEETMATERIAL [76] Inventor: Martin Oscar Frey, Hill House Gloucestershire,Newnham, England 22 Filed: Feb. 11, 1974 21 Appl. No.: 441,323

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 27-, 1973 United Kingdom9678/73 [52] US. Cl 211/45; 211/691 [51] Int. Cl. A471 1/16 [58] Fieldof Search 211/45, 69.2, 69.1, 69.4,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,153,062 9/1915 Gourlay211/132 X 2,062,577 12/1936 Kaplan 211/60 R X 2,294,144 8/1942 Weidner211/45 2,553,377 5/1951 Loventhal 211/133 [111 3,887,077 June 3,1975

2,626,078 l/1953 Hutchisson et a1. 248/346 X 2,911,180 11/1959 Dunaganet a1 248/346 3,176,504 4/1965 Shapiro 3,365,067 1/1968 Miller et al.

3,419,240 12/1968 Santic 248/350 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 162,9975/1921 United Kingdom 211/45 1,224,465 2/1960 France 220/20 857,48912/1960 United Kingdom. 211/45 975,357 10/1950 France 248/350 752,4447/1956 United Kingdom 211/45 Primary ExaminerR0y D. Frazier AssistantExaminer-Thomas J. Holko Attorney, Agent, or F irm--Young & Thompson [57] ABSTRACT A compact storage container for flexible sheets such asdrawings, comprising a long length of thin sheet material coiled into aspiral and located on a base with an open upper entry slot. The outerend of the slot is closed and at the centre there may be a verticalhollow column which may serve as a sub-compartment.

6 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATH-NED JUH 3 I975 SHEET PATEHTEU JUH 3I975 SHEET PATENTEDJUH 3 m5 SHEET CONTAINERS OR RACKS FOR SHEET MATERIALThis invention relates to a container or rack for flexible sheetmaterial such as paper or thin cardboard and the invention isparticularly applicable to a container or rack for storing quantities ofcut sheet material as opposed to continuously wound lengths.-

Conventional methods of storing quantities of loose cut paper tend to bebulky and expensive and in many cases do not provide ready access todifferent types of the material being stored. For example if largequantities of drawing sheets of different sizes and materials arestacked on open shelves it is difficult to withdraw a selected sheetfrom the lower part of a stack and the same applies to containers of thedrawer type such as plan chests where considerable quantities of sheetmaterial may be stored in each individual drawer, and in addition suchplan chests are cumbersome, heavy and rather expensive. Accordingly itis an object of the invention to provide an improved container orstorage rack for flexible sheet material such as paper which willovercome some of the existing disadvantages.

Broadly stated the invention consists in a container or rack for cutsheets of thin flexible sheet material, comprising a coiled or helicalwall having a plurality of turns, with successive turns spaced apart toform a coiled or helical slot with an open upper entry, while the lowerparts of the wall are anchored to a support structure which also locatesthe wall in the required helical configuration.

Although the container has been described above as standing verticallyit will be understood that in practice the whole container may be tiltedor may be on a horizontal axis. However for convenience herein it willbe assumed that the axis is vertical.

The upper edges of the turns may lie at'differing heights: for examplethey may be sloped to one side or dished towards the centre. This makesit easier for the cut sheets to be inserted into the helical slot, andin one particular construction the upper edge of the innermost part ofthe wall is lower than the upper edge of the outermost part of the wall.It will be understood that if the height of the wall is not uniform itis relatively easy to insert one or more sheets of paper into thehelical slot merely by canting the sheet before it is inserted. If theupper edge of the wall is lower towards the centre any thin sheetlocated in the coiled slot will have greater natural rigidity where itis coiled more tightly at the centre and the reduction in the height ofthe helical wall at the centre is not a disadvantage.

Preferably the wall extends continuously from a central vertical edge oraxis to a peripheral edge or axis, and according to a particularpreferred feature of the invention the wall is formed of a thin sheet ofsynthetic plastics material, which is sufficiently rigid to beselfsupporting, but sufficiently flexible to be capable of being woundinto a spiral, and has a smooth antifriction surface.

The support structure may include a vertical post acting as an anchoragefor the inner end of the wall, and possibly a further post acting as ananchorage for the outer end of the wall, and may also include a rigidbase formed with a helical groove to receive the lower edge of the wall.The outer post may also act as an end closure for the helical slot.Alternatively the inner part of the wall may be wound on itself to forma central hollow cylinder, and its outer edge may be curled inwards toclose off the outer end of the slot. In one particular construction thebase comprises a U-section helically disposed channel element providingthe helical groove, or alternatively the groove may be formed in a solidbody, or may be built up from a large number of individual segments.

The invention may be performed in various ways and one specificembodiment with several possible modifications will now be described byway of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a somewhat diagrammatic sectional side elevation through aspiral paper storage container according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the storage container of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the container,

FIG. 4 is a sectional view through the base of a modification of theinvention,

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a further embodiment,

FIG. 6 is a perspective view illustrating yet another embodiment, and

FIG. 7 is a sectional side elevation through the base only of a furtherembodiment.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 to 3 the storage rack illustrated is intendedfor storing quantities of cut sheets of drawing paper and comprisesessentially a base 10 and a helical upstanding wall 11. The base isprovided with a central vertical pillar or post consisting of a metaltube 12 anchored to a rigid base plate 13 by a central threaded rod 14having washers and nuts at opposite ends, and a similar pillar 15 isprovided at the periphery of the base. These pillars or posts act asanchorages for the inner and outer edges of the helical wall 11, whichare conveniently attached to the pillars by wrapping the wall tightlyaround the metal tube and securing it to the tube by one or more smallscrews.

The helical wall 11 is preferably formed of a synthetic plastics sheetmaterial such as ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) or polypropylene,having an extremely smooth polished surface providing good antifrictionproperties, and also having sufficient flexibility to allow the wall tobe coiled into a helix, but sufficient rigidity for it to beself-supporting when so coiled. A suitable sheet thickness is about 1mmor 0.04 inches. ABS has the further advantage that it facilitatesbonding to itself or other materials by means of an adhesive. In thisparticular example the wall is coiled into a generally cylindrical shapehaving an external diameter of approximately 2 feet and a spacingbetween successive turns of approximately 3 inches, the coiled length ofthe wall being approximately 16% feet. These dimensions determine thedimensions of the helical slot formed by the wall, but it will beunderstood that since the slot is open-sided upwards there is no preciselimit to the dimensions of the stored paper measured vertically. Theperipheral end of the helical slot is effectively closed in this exampleby the outer pillar 15, which spans the width of the slot. In thisexample the upper edge of the coiled wall 11 is of progressivelyreducing height towards the centre, as seen in FIGS. 1 and 3 but theedge may be of uniform height, or may be sloped from front to rear, asillustrated in FIG. 6.

The base in this first example is a rigid structure comprising thecircular base plate 13 with a plurality of separately formed segments orformers 16 secured to its upper surface so as to form a continuoushelical groove in which the lower edge of the helical wall 11 isanchored. In constructing the rack it is convenient in this example towrap the helical wall around one turn after the innermost segments 16have been located in position around the central pillar 12, then to tackthe lower edges of the wall 11 to these inner segments, as illustratedat 17, then locate a further ring of segments around the wall, andthereafter wrap the wall around one further turn, continuing theprocedure in this way until the whole wall has been coiled. Theindividual segments may be screwed or otherwise secured to the base 13,as shown at 18. The base itself is preferably mounted on a number ofcastors 19 so that the whole unit is readily movable around a studio,schoolroom, or drawing office, and the periphery of the-base may beprotected by a rubber buffer hoop 20 formed with a projecting hollowresilient bead or ring 21.

In the second embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, instead of a rigid solidbase, a die-cast metal structure is provided having a number of radialarms or spokes 25 cast integral with a helically formed U-sectionchannel element 26 with an open upper entrance into the groove providedby the channel, so as to receive the lower edge of the helical plasticswall 1 1. This wall may be anchored in the groove by means of smallscrews or the like passed through apertures drilled through theU-section channel element 26.

It will be understood that other materials may readily be substituted.For example the whole base may be formed of a synthetic plasticsmaterial, as an injection moulding. Also the rack may be provided with aremovable protective lid, mounted on an upward extension of the centralcolumn, so as to protect the contents, without bearing down on the edgesof the paper. The lid may have a depending skirt around its periphery,which effectively seals the whole unit, and excludes dust and light.

In the embodiment of FIG. the base is formed from a number of chip-boardformers attached to a circular disc and shaped appropriately to definethe spiral groove for the helical wall. The inner and outer posts 12 andof the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 3 are however omitted. The helicalwall 30 is itself shaped to define a closed central hollow cylinder 31,and its extreme outer end is curled against the adjacent inner coil, at32, and secured by an adhesive, to close off the outer end of thehelical slot. In assembly a central circular disc 35 is first screwed inposition on the underlying base board or disc (not shown) and a sheet ofthin flexible ABS plastics is curled around this circular disc, to whichits lower edge is stapled, after which the remaining formers 36 39 arelocated successively, screwed to the base board, and the lower edge ofthe ABS sheet stapled to their outer surfaces. Thus the formers areprogressively attached in the sequence 36, 37, 38, 39 etc. Finally theend 32 of the ABS sheet is bonded against the adjacent part of the samesheet. In this example the central hollow cylinder 31 is left open atits upper end and acts as a further storage compartment. Depending uponthe size of the unit this may be useful for holding rolls of paper,metre rules, walking sticks, umbrellas, or in smaller sizes articlessuch as slide rules or drawing pens.

The storage rack illustrated in FIG. 6 comprises a helical coil strip40, mounted on a base 41, with the top edge of the strip inclineddownwardly from one side to the other as seen in the elevation. This isconveniently manufactured by taking a flexible plastics sheet of uniformwidth and coiling this between two end or base fittings, each asdescribed in one or other of the previous examples. When so assembledthe whole coil is then cut through on a slant by a knife or hot wirethus producing two storage racks, each with an inclined upper edge asshown in FIG. 6. When manufactured in a relatively small size thisembodiment may be particularly useful as a desk-top container for pens,pencils, stationery and other office requisites.

In the embodiment illustrated 'in FIG. 7 the base of the rack comprisesa chipboard circular supporting disc 45 provided with casters 48 andhaving a vacuum formed plastics sheet 46 attached to its upper surface,this sheet being formed to provide a spiral groove as illustrated at 47.A coiled helical wall (not shown) is fitted in and located by thisgroove, and secured with adhesive or mechanical fasteners.

I claim:

1. A container for cut sheets of thin flexible sheet material,comprising a rigid base formed with a spiral groove, a continuous coiledspiral wall formed of a thin sheet of synthetic plastics material, whichis sufficiently rigid to be self-supporting but sufficiently flexible tobe capable of being wound into a spiral, and has a smooth anti-frictionsurface, said wall having a plurality of turns, with successive turnsspaced apart to form a coiled slot, having a substantially continuousopen upper entry, the lower parts of the said wall being anchored in thespiral groove of said base, which locates the said wall in the requiredcoiled configuration, the inner end of said wall being arranged toprovide a closed hollow central cylinder, and the outer end of said wallbeing formed to close off the outer end of said coiled slot.

2. A container according to claim 1, in which the upper edges of theturns of the said coiled wall lie at different heights.

3. A container according to claim 2, in which the upper edge of theinnermost part of the said wall is lower than the upper edge of theoutermost part of the said wall.

4. A container according to claim 2, in which the height of said walldiminishes progressively from one side of the container to the other.

5. A container according to claim 1, in which said base comprises aU-section channel element providing the said spiral groove.

6. A container according to claim 1, including vertical posts secured tosaid base and acting as anchorages for the inner or outer ends of saidwall.

1. A container for cut sheets of thin flexible sheet material,comprising a rigid base formed with a spiral groove, a continuous coiledspiral wall formed of a thin sheet of synthetic plastics material, whichis sufficiently rigid to be self-supporting but sufficiently flexible tobe capable of being wound into a spiral, and has a smooth anti-frictionsurface, said wall having a plurality of turns, with successive turnsspaced apart to form a coiled slot, having a substantially continuousopen upper entry, the lower parts of the said wall being anchored in thespiral groove of said base, which locates the said wall in the requiredcoiled configuration, the inner end of said wall being arranged toprovide a closed hollow central cylinder, and the outer end of said wallbeing formed to close off the outer end of said coiled slot.
 1. Acontainer for cut sheets of thin flexible sheet material, comprising arigid base formed with a spiral groove, a continuous coiled spiral wallformed of a thin sheet of synthetic plastics material, which issufficiently rigid to be self-supporting but sufficiently flexible to becapable of being wound into a spiral, and has a smooth anti-frictionsurface, said wall having a plurality of turns, with successive turnsspaced apart to form a coiled slot, having a substantially continuousopen upper entry, the lower parts of the said wall being anchored in thespiral groove of said base, which locates the said wall in the requiredcoiled configuration, the inner end of said wall being arranged toprovide a closed hollow central cylinder, and the outer end of said wallbeing formed to close off the outer end of said coiled slot.
 2. Acontainer according to claim 1, in which the upper edges of the turns ofthe said coiled wall lie at different heights.
 3. A container accordingto claim 2, in which the upper edge of the innermost part of the saidwall is lower than the upper edge of the outermost part of the saidwall.
 4. A container according to claim 2, in which the height of saidwall diminishes progressively from one side of the container to theother.
 5. A container according to claim 1, in which said base comprisesa U-section channel element providing the said spiral groove.